Chapter Fourteen
THE SUN SLID BEHIND the ridge that gave the town its name, and Pru knew full dark wasn’t far behind. “Ari!”
She heard the faint echo of the call from half a dozen other voices spread out across their sector. Her feet ached and exhaustion dragged at her frame, but she kept going. She’d keep going until she held Ari in her arms again. An hour before, Dash had found the peel from a clementine—the first and only proof Ari had actually headed out cross country instead of going for the road. The only comfort there was that they didn’t have the danger of some human predator picking her up trying to hitchhike. One thirteen-year-old girl couldn’t cover that much territory in six hours, so she had to be in the geographic area. But on foot, with night falling, the mountains Pru had run tame in as a child felt like a whole other country.
Was Ari scared? Her trail had led them in a southerly direction, skirting town. Where was she going? Did she even have a plan? How much of one could she really have come up with in the half hour she had to slip out of the house? She was resourceful, but she hadn’t had the same kind of hard life before coming to Joan that many fosters had. She hadn’t had to learn to survive. Certainly not any kind of wilderness survival.
“Ari!” Flynn’s voice carried from somewhere up ahead. She could barely see him in the dimming light.
“He’s not handling this well,” Kennedy murmured.
“No.” Pru had watched him retreat over the course of the day, and she hadn’t been able to do anything about it. No amount of comforting was going to help him until they had Ari back. And then there’d be a showdown with a judge. “He blames himself.”
“Do you?”
Pru looked to her sister, wondering if she blamed her friend. “No, not at all. I agreed to all of this. If anyone’s to blame, it’s me for wanting one last thing for me before the adoption.” She looked back to the trail. “I feel like I’m being punished.” And didn’t she deserve that for being so selfish?
Kennedy stopped in her tracks, reaching out to grab her by the arm. “Pru.” Absolute horror was etched on her face. “No one expected you to stop living your own life when you decided to adopt Ari. Of course, you deserve someone.”
She’d believed she did deserve someone. It was the thing that had pushed her so far out of character as to pursue Flynn. “But at this cost?” She’d been thinking about it all afternoon as they searched, between bouts of panic over whether her child was safe. No amount of logic would change the fact that, if she hadn’t broken out of the pigeon hole everyone kept her in, none of this would have happened. “If anything’s happened to her, I’ll never forgive myself.”
“We’re going to find her, and she’s going to be fine.” Kennedy’s voice held a savage edge, as if daring the Universe to contradict her.
“And the rest?” Finding her didn’t mean they got to keep her. And because of their deception and Kennedy’s collusion, it wasn’t as if Lydia Coogan would look at any member of their family as an option.
“We’ll deal with the rest as it comes. As a family. A united front.”
Pru didn’t know if that would be enough.
One problem at a time. It was how she’d gotten through her mother’s death. Compartmentalizing. Facing only what was right in front of her. Right now, that was simply getting through however many hours passed until they found her daughter.
Up ahead, Chris paused and pulled a bowl and water from her pack, pouring some for Dash. The dog eagerly lapped it up. He’d worked as tirelessly as the rest of them.
Kennedy pulled water from her own pack and shoved it at Pru. “Here. Drink.”
Pru didn’t argue, gulping it down. She didn’t dare sit. If she sat, her muscles would seize up. She was that kind of tired.
Xander appeared out of the woods, conferring with Chris in a tone too low for Pru to hear. She asked him something, and when he shook his head, she pulled out another flag, this one a neon green instead of the orange she’d been using for the points where Dash had alerted.
“Something’s up,” Pru said, already heading toward them when Xander broke away. She didn’t like the look on his face.
“How are you holding up?”
“I’m fine.” She’d have said the same through injury or illness, just to keep searching.
“Night’s falling. We have to pull everybody in until morning.”
Panic reached up to claw at her throat. “We have flashlights,” she insisted. “You said the volunteer fire department had those big search lights.”
“They’re vehicle mounted, and we can’t get vehicles down here. It’s not safe for everybody else to be out here after dark.”
“We’re just going to leave the defenseless child out here on her own?” Flynn demanded. “Fuck that.”
“I understand your frustration. I don’t want to go in either. But blundering around in the dark is more likely to lead to injury and muck up any trail she’s left. There’s no sign she’s hurt, and she’s smart enough to find somewhere to stop for the night. There’s no rain in the forecast, and this late in the summer, there’s no concern about hypothermia from exposure. We’ll be back out at first light, with more people to search for a broader range.”
“I’m not going back,” Pru said.
Xander’s expression shifted to one that clearly said be reasonable. “Pru—”
“If you’re going to make me stop searching for the night, fine. I’ll camp out here. I don’t want to waste time having to get all this way in the morning. You said yourself, we can’t get vehicles out here.”
“You’re not packed to camp,” he pointed out.
“Neither is she. My daughter is about to be spending the night on the mountain, alone, in the dark. She’s going to be terrified. I’m not going back, Xander.”
He looked to Flynn, who crossed his arms with a belligerent scowl. “I’m staying, too.”
“I’m packed for overnight,” Chris said. “Though I don’t have enough gear for multiple people.”
Xander divided a look between them. “I let you stay out here, you stay put. I don’t want this to turn into multiple missing persons.”
“We won’t be stupid,” Pru promised.
“I’ll have some gear and supplies brought out. We can get a four-wheeler down here.”
It took an hour, by which time Chris had her little one-person tent set up and Dash fed. Xander’s deputy, Clyde Parker, was the one who came with camping gear.
“Where’s Xander?” Pru asked.
“He’s coordinating with the rest of the search team, making a plan for tomorrow.” Clyde swung off the ATV and unhooked the elastic net holding on his cargo. “Got a couple tents, sleeping bags, and food. Crystal’s taken over your kitchen back at the inn and is feeding everybody.”
“That’s kind of her.”
“She sent provisions. There’s an active burn ban, so no fire, but we won’t go hungry.” He hefted one of two coolers off the back.
“We?” Flynn asked.
“I’m camping out here tonight with y’all.”
“To make sure we behave and don’t keep searching?” Pru asked.
“That and to make sure somebody with some more training is on hand, in case anything happens,” he said easily. “Your sisters are en route and should be here sometime tomorrow morning. Kennedy stayed back to talk to them. But she sent this.” Clyde lifted Flynn’s fiddle case. “She thought you might want it.”
After a moment’s hesitation, Flynn took it.
They set up their minimalist camp. She and Flynn were sharing a tent and a double sleeping bag. Some thoughtful person had made sure they had air pads so they weren’t sleeping directly on the hard ground. Crystal had packed fried chicken, macaroni and cheese, and peach cobbler. Thanks to the cooler and expert packing job, it was all still warm. Though she had no appetite, Pru ate, tasting little, but appreciating the effort that had gone into making sure they were fed something solid.
When the meal was finished, Flynn opened his fiddle case. He ran a hand over the instrument itself.
“I didn’t think you’d feel like playing,” Pru said softly.
“I don’t. But I can’t do anything else, and sound carries out here. So maybe she’ll hear it and be a little less afraid.” He brought the fiddle to his shoulder and drew the bow across its strings.
She didn’t recognize the song, but the melancholy melody seemed to reach right into her chest and squeeze her heart. He was playing his grief, much as Ari had done after Joan’s death. Tears slipped down her cheeks as she listened, even after he rolled into something more cheerful and lilting. He played for near to an hour, and by the time he put down his bow, tears streaked his face as well.
No one spoke as he put his fiddle away and climbed into the tent. Pru didn’t think she could sleep, but she wanted to curl around him and offer whatever comfort she could. They’d been in this together from the beginning. There was no reason that should change now.
She crawled in after him, zipping them into the deceptive privacy of the tent. In the opposite corner, he pulled off his shoes and slipped into the sleeping bag. On her side, Pru did the same. He faced away from her, and she cuddled up against his back, wrapping an arm around his waist. His body stayed stiff. Aching in body and soul, she pressed a kiss to his nape and whispered, “I love you.”
Flynn loosed a shuddering breath and curled his hand around the one she pressed to his chest. “I love you, too. Get some sleep, mo mhuirnín.”
She didn’t think she could, but the moment his body relaxed against hers, she was out like a light.
~*~
Flynn woke often, unused to the raucous sounds of the night creatures. Pru slept the sleep of the utterly exhausted, wrapped around him. How she took comfort in being close to him after everything that had happened, he didn’t know. How could she even bear to look at him? She’d trusted him. She and Ari both had, buying into his crazy plan instead of booting him out on his ass. The price for that trust was far too high. That singular thought circled through his head in the long stretch of absolute silence before the dawn. He couldn’t settle, but he’d cost Pru enough. He wasn’t about to rob her of the oblivion of sleep. So, he didn’t move until he heard the telltale zipper of one of their companions coming out of a tent.
“It’s morning,” he murmured.
With a little groan, Pru tightened her hold, burying her face against his back. He felt the moment she realized and remembered as her body went stiff. She took a long, slow breath and seemed to will herself to relax again.
“Did you sleep?”
“A little. You?”
“More than I expected.” She sat up running a hand through her hair and refastening her ponytail.
Chris was watering Dash as they emerged. “Morning.”
Clyde clambered out. “Christ, I’d give my eye teeth for coffee.”
“No coffee, but there are Cokes still in the cooler.”
“That’ll do.”
They each wandered off to find a private tree. By the time Flynn got back, Chris had already collapsed her tent and was sliding out the poles. He did the same, while Pru pulled out the energy bars sent for their breakfast. They ate and packed up camp quickly. Clyde radioed back to the command center at the house.
Xander came back quickly. “We’ve got a hundred volunteers waiting for orders. Chris, what’s your plan? Over.”
“Picking back up where we left off. Based on our position, I suggest splitting the volunteers down the middle and sending half out in an arc, coming at us from the opposite side of the ridge, starting at the highway. Seems unlikely Ari made it past that point yesterday.” She gave the coordinates.
“Done. There’s a whole other group searching town. I don’t think she went that way, but one way or the other, we’re gonna find her today. Over.”
“Copy. We’re headed out.” Chris gave the handset back to Clyde and pulled out the zip-top bag holding Ari’s socks. She opened the bag and held a sock for Dash to sniff. “This Ari. Find Ari. Find Ari, Dash.”
The dog circled their camp once, twice, three times, before setting off toward the south again. They all fell into step behind him. The path they followed led off the ridge and down toward a stream. They crossed it and followed it for a while. Flynn noted what he presumed were animal trails leading away from it here and there. Some of the tracks belonged to things he didn’t want to think about. There were predators in these mountains, and Ari had been alone last night.
“Most people, when they’re lost, will take the path of least resistance,” Chris explained. “They’re tired, often injured. A lot of people will follow water, reasoning that will eventually lead to civilization.”
Pru looked around the thick woods. “There’s definitely no civilization for miles yet. I’m not even quite sure where we are.”
Dash barked twice, his head shooting up and his ears pricking, before he bulleted off through the trees. Flynn didn’t stop to think, he just ran. Branches tore at his arms and face, as his long legs ate up the distance. When he broke free, he found Dash circling the base of a tree, rearing up on his hind legs and whining. High above, a platform nestled in the branches. As he neared, he saw the scatter of orange peels on the ground. He leapt for the rudimentary ladder nailed to the tree, already climbing before the others caught up.
“Ari?”
A sleepy voice answered. “Flynn?”
“Ari.” He made it to the top of the platform and saw her, sitting up from where she’d obviously been sleeping on her backpack. Her face and clothes were smudged with dirt, and there were scratches along her arms and face, but she was all in one piece. Safe.
Flynn hauled himself onto the platform in time for her to launch herself into his arms. She began to cry, hanging onto him like a limpet. “I’ve got you, cailín beag. I’ve got you.” He wrapped his arms tight around her and rocked, sending up prayers and promises to the Almighty in thanks for her safe deliverance.
“I heard you. Last night, I heard you playing.”
“Did you?”
“I wanted to answer back, but I didn’t have anything with me, and I climbed up here to keep away from any bears.”
“Bears?” he asked sharply. Thank God he hadn’t known about those. “Clever girl. What is this thing?”
“A hunter’s platform. They hide up here for deer hunting.”
“Flynn?” Pru called up.
“She’s here. She’s safe.” He held Ari for just a few moments longer before pulling back. “Here now. Let’s go down. Pru’s been worried about you.”
They climbed down together, Flynn going first in case she was unsteady. At the bottom of the ladder, Ari fell into Pru’s embrace and they both burst into tears.
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, Mom.”
Pru squeezed her tight. “It’s okay. I’m not mad, baby. I’m just so glad you’re okay.”
“But I’m not okay,” Ari wailed. “That awful woman said she was going to take me away. I don’t wanna go away. I wanna stay with you.”
Flynn’s throat went tight.
Pru’s arms tightened around her. “We’re gonna deal with that, and you can bet every single one of us is going to fight. But don’t you worry about that right now. Let’s just get you home.”
The crackle of the radio pulled Flynn’s attention from the reunion.
Chris was grinning as she made the call back to the command center. “We’ve found her. Repeat, we’ve found her. Ari’s coming home.”
Now he just had to find a way to make sure she stayed there.